Best New Course.

The design team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw received a lot of publicity last year--including in the pages of this magazine ("Turning Back the Sands of Time," August)--for its renovation of North Carolina golf's crown jewel: Pinehurst No. 2. But it was the duo's original layout at Dormie Club in West End that garnered the state's Best New Course for 2011, according to the North Carolina Golf Panel. (No. 2 wasn't eligible because its refurbishment didn't dramatically alter its layout.)

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Less than five miles away from No. 2, Dormie Club is the first course to open in the Pinehurst area since 1996. Coore and Crenshaw moved little earth, instead taking advantage of the landscape--more than 300 rolling acres, 100-foot elevation changes, two natural lakes and hardwood and pine forests--to craft a course that boasts undulating greens, wide fairways and more than a few waste bunkers (94). "We get excited any time we see sand because sand and golf just go together," says Crenshaw, a two-time Masters champion. "We look at natural topography and how that piece of property can yield a golf course."

The limited-membership private club has already earned its share of accolades, including a No. 3 ranking on Golfweek's list of the country's best new courses. Thankfully, it lacks two features that are prevalent on many of today's newer courses: housing and roads. "It has great routing and is very scenic," panelist Tom Dixon says. "It'd be a fair challenge from any tee." Adds panelist Rick Robbins, a noted course architect whose designs are in more...